It's been a long time

[qwertystop]

Hello! I haven't played in quite a while - as best as I recall, the Hades was relatively new when I left. Or possibly... I vaguely recall a Harpoon change? Can't remember which of those was first. Or possibly it was Stamina. Those three were definitely the newest things, or possibly Stamina was new when I popped back in for a very short time in the middle, I don't recall.

The game seems to have changed a lot since then. (And I wasn't especially good before that point). A quick skim of the client shows Factions and associated missions with some sort of territory system, several new ships and guns that I haven't begun to be able to reasonably analyze, possibly unknown changes to older things that invalidate what little I already knew...

Any advice? A quick rundown of what's changed? Ways to get my eye back in, accounting for the fact that I don't think the game will matchmake me as a novice but I'm about as rusty as it's possible to be?

[The Mann]

Despite a few of these posts being player focused, there are a few features and changes mentioned over the years.

I don't remember most statistics changes so my advice would probably be to check the ship loadouts of all ships before a match and see how well they perform.
You could watch some Sunday Community Skirmish matches on twitch / youtube to see what the competitive vets use.

You can also set up a practice lobby with your own ship which you can change the guns on at anytime. This can help you check out every weapon and see how they fare compared to target dummies

If matchmaking takes forever, go to Match List - quickest and most stress free way of finding quick matches.

Feel free to PM me in game if we're ever online at the same time and I'll play a few matches with you. 

[Red-Xiii]

Youre in a sweet spot.  Just jump in.  And enjoy learning the game all over.  Once you learn it again, youll either be bored or continue with it. 

[Baelfire Ender]

In all honesty, where the game stands at the moment is a prime time to jump in. I can recommend going to see the Sunday Community Skirmishes and possibly attending Saturday Chaos Skirmishes. Overall, just hop into the game and play.

[Coldcurse]

To have left the game for a long while and jump back in.

Here's a short summary:
-New guns have been added.
-New gamemodes have been introduced.
-Alliance mode is introduced.
-New ships have been added in alliance mode.
-Alliance mode has world interactive minigame.
-Loads of different guns in Alliance mode.
-More new players.
-Lots of statistic changes.
-NEW USER INTERFACE.
-CA names have changed from full yellow to a little icon next to their name in chat. (just for verification purposes)
-Fun thrashtalking is still a thing.
-You can still talk in a silly pirate voice.
-Guaranteed fun.